thats fine, while you might not have respect for their beliefs, but i for one respect yours.. but deep down part of you cries out for the answers, or you wouldn't be here having this talk with me would you ?
I believe the universe came from nothing. its part of the chaos theory of creation.. the real question open to debate for me is the order of events, is time linear or is there just the moment? are we all just different manifestations of one mind and are alone here , talking to ourselves.. so my questions i seek answers too, are far beyond what many others want to know.. i mean how would you feel if every body here was just you in a slightly different form... living an eternity without anyone else... now thats what i believe it must feel like to be a god.. so we would choose to forget things along the way, just to make it more fun, you for example, you choose to forget where you came from, thats not wrong, just different, and thats why i could never disrespect you, your just me.. we are all the same just at slightly different times and places, spread though eternity, just having fun.
so enjoy the ride, its all we have at the moment

edit on 16-5-2011 by sprocket2cog because: (no reason given)

So much of what you have written rings true with me. I cant explain the whys or whens or the hows, but a fly's eye comes to mind. Each of us, well, not all of us, are a infinitesimal splinter, spark, of the great divine. Each living the life that was offered to them, in one fashion or another. Each to teach or learn at their own pace, and in their own time.

Someone earlier said we invented god so we could have an after life. Well maybe some did do just that, but what kind of world would we have if we didn't have those dreamers to dream an after life for us?

Logically speaking, the first forms of life on this planet were reptilian. I don't mean the two legged type, but the dinosaurs. What is to say we know for sure about all the life forms that were present. What you do have are the bones that survived to be discovered. That in no way gives you a complete picture of all life forms that could have existed so long ago. It just boggles my mind that people can be so certain of something hundreds of millions of years ago to state some type of life form was impossible. What of all the bones that will never be found, discovered?

To me, its far more logical that an intelligent life form, or species, did survive to this day, and due to its superior intellect, remains hidden from us, than the fairy tales told in the bible that I believe are taken completely out of context and reality. What absolute arrogance of humanity to say something is not possible when we as a species are only two hundred thousand years old, give or take, compared to something that may be millions of years old. It is absolutely mind boggling to me that a so called "Intelligent" person can not comprehend this possibility.

Question, do you think that having believed in god may have predisposed you to interpreting your "experience" as "religious/god"? Is it not possible that you already had the idea that "god" existed and were just looking for things to validate your own faith based belief?

It was not a religios expiriance, I now understand that religion is only good for study and that you don't have to be religios in nature, this would include ceremonies, rituals and so on.

Religion is a good source of information, to study and come to a conclusion, but I am not an adept into religion practice. For example many things that are writen in the bible are true, but it will not make me dress in a robe, make icons and items out of what is writen and then worship them. I don't think god the supreme god is religios.

As to validate my own belief there was a small part of me before that was in doubt yes, a small procent. When we all go and say sometimes when things go bad, "life is crap, there is nothing out there" But in general I was very strong into my belief, rooted into it without any happening/expiriance.